Kill_Team_Rules_6-th_ed_Eng

In over ten millennia of war, there have been countless occasions where the actions of a few brave souls have turned the tide of a conflict. Whether the heroes of each of these stories were a band of seasoned die-hards with a score to settle, or merely some stranded survivors whose desperate situation saw them find courage they never knew they had, their brave deeds have become legend regardless.

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team puts you in charge of a motley band of warriors, whose skill, determination and courage will be put to the test as they undertake dangerous do- or-die missions deep behind enemy lines. As each of your models acts independently from the rest of his squad, their individual actions – even a single kill – can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Whether you choose an elite team of stalwart heroes or a small horde of expendable conscripts to form your Kill Team, they must all fight with one purpose if they are to achieve their mission objectives.

The steaming jungle was full of noise. The ragged caw of bleeder shrikes, the howls of great white apes and the rustle of gnashing dagger ants formed a discordant chorus that rendered the screams of the Voscan 231st into mere punctuation.

Harker’s Hellraisers, for their part, made not the slightest sound.

In the dappled clearing ahead a group of Kroot were feasting on the Voscan platoon that had stumbled across the Tau muster site. The quills of their avian skulls flicked and fanned as they plunged their beaks repeatedly into the opened torsos of the fallen. Behind them, the tribe’s Shaper was stringing the decapitated heads of the Voscan soldiers onto a vine they had hung between two gnarlspine trees. Some of Guardsmen moaned weakly as their insides were pulled out in great red ropes of viscera.

‘Them Kroot stink like green hell, and they got themselves some bad table manners to boot,’ murmured ‘Stonetooth’ Harker.

‘That’s rich, coming from a soul who eats his own scabs,’ said Brond, his second in command.

Harker just grinned, a flash of white against the olive-and-black camouflage of his skin. He hefted the oiled bulk of his heavy bolter, Payback, and motioned the Hellraisers forwards with a doublefingered point. Around him a loose skirmish line of Catachans fanned out, little more than a clutch of ghosts that surge-stop-surged forward every time the breeze disturbed the jungle’s thick foliage.

‘Where’s this distraction, then, Sarge?’ whispered Nils Redblade from a few feet away. The killer drew his Catachan knife, tugging tight the topknots of Tau hair he had wound around arms that would have done an Ork proud.

‘Shut your flappin’ mouth, Red,’ said Harker. ‘Turt, Kennet, get on forward. Brond, watch and learn.’

In the clearing ahead, the Kroot Shaper cut the head free from the body of the Voscan Platoon’s Commissar. Clacking softly, the alien cocked its head like a curious bird as a thin silver cord was revealed within the gristle and grue of the officer’s throat.

The severed head exploded, and the jungle burst into hectic, shrieking

life.

The Catachans were already up and moving, taking positions and crouching to release a crossfire of searing las-beams. Three of the feasting Kroot died before the smoking remains of the Shaper had toppled backwards to the ground.

Suddenly a bellowing Krootox reared out of a dense copse of bloodsedge, massive arms flailing. Harker dropped under its wild swing, pressing Payback’s barrel to its chest and blasting it clear with such force a section of the beast’s spine flew out into the jungle like a badly thrown bolas. The giant xenos lashed out as it fell, catching Harker’s chin with a right hook that would have taken a lesser man’s head clean off. The sergeant flew backward into an ironbark tree, the triple crack of snapping ribs audible amongst the las-blasts and plasma crackle of the gunfight up ahead. Harker coughed a great gob of blood, but kept his finger on the trigger of his heavy bolter nonetheless, pumping mass-reactive bolts into the sprawling beast’s corpse until the air was misted with xenos blood.

The high-pitched hum of anti-grav engines grew in volume as a Tau recon craft hurtled through the trees towards them, its wing-mounted gun drones blazing. Turt and Kennet were cut apart in the space of a heartbeat, a confusion of olive-painted limbs tumbling through the slashed foliage. Nils took his chance, hurling his grapnel hook into the engines of the passing Piranha and jumping with it so he was jerked fifty metres through the air. The grapnel’s cable caught on an ironbark bough with the Tau skimmer on one side and the barrel-chested Catachan on the other.

Yanked suddenly downward, the Piranha whined for a second before slamming into a fallen tree and exploding in a blossoming cloud of greasy smoke. The spinning remains of its hull cut Nils badly as he tumbled and rolled through the muck, but the knifeman laughed in triumph nonetheless, for the same shrapnel had caused the Fire Warriors hustling towards their position to dive for cover.

It was all the chance Harker needed. He limped from the cover of the Krootox corpse and splashed sidelong along a shallow stream, Payback blasting its fury. The Fire Warriors stood their ground under the suppression fire, blinding white needles of plasma stabbing through the jungle. Harker took a grazing hit before he could put an ironbark tree between him and his foes. The volley fire took the bark from either side of his shelter, but even the Tau’s deadly rifles could not penetrate its trunk.

‘Keep shooting, you grey-faced freaks,’ rumbled Harker, the flesh of his

bicep still sizzling as he yanked a spent ammo belt from Payback’s breach and fed in one of the spares he had wrapped over his shoulders. ‘Take all the time you want.’

The Tau’s fire faltered and stopped. Grinning fiercely, Harker dropped low to take a half-second glance through the roots of his tree. Sure enough, Brond and Blacken were lowering the corpses of the Fire Warriors to the ground, their throats slit open by good Catachan steel.

As Harker stood back up, he saw a pair of Kroot loping long-legged through the jungle towards his men from the left flank. Their pointed avian tongues protruded in hungry anticipation of the kill. ‘Fat chance’, spat Harker, swinging Payback around the trunk of the ironbark and thudding out a stream of bolts. The volley blasted one of the Kroot from its feet in a welter of blood and gangling limbs.

Alerted to the danger, Brond turned and flung his knife at the Kroot bearing down upon him. The foot-long blade thunked into the xenos warrior’s chest so hard that it took him from his feet and landed him sprawling in the dirt.

Behind them, a Voscan Sentinel stomped through the trees, a mass of lianas and rope-moss trailing from its piston-driven legs. The pilot stood up in his cab, waving a cloud of bloodmidges from his startled face. Mouth agape, he surveyed the scattered corpses and billowing smoke that had turned the clearing into an abattoir.

‘Bit late, mate,’ called out Harker. ‘Your lot are all dead, but we got the bastards that killed ’em.’

The Voscan pilot nodded his thanks and saluted weakly, but Harker and his men were already melting away into the jungle, the gentle rustle of leaves all that broke the silence.

CHOOSING YOUR KILL TEAM

Each player can spend up to 200 points on their Kill Team, chosen from a single codex or codex supplement, and adhering to the Kill Team Force Organisation Chart, shown below:

Kill Team Detachment

0-2 Troops

0-1 Elites

0-1 Fast Attack

In order to represent the sorts of units that would be tasked with undertaking such missions, there are a few further restrictions that you must take into account when selecting your Kill Team:

•A Kill Team must include at least four non-vehicle models. One of these models must be your Leader and three must be Specialists (see below).

•A Kill Team cannot include any models with more than 3 Wounds or Hull Points on their profile.

•A Kill Team cannot include any vehicles with a combined Armour Value (established by adding the vehicle’s Front, Side and Rear Armour Values together) of more than 33.

•A Kill Team cannot include Flyers.

•A Kill Team cannot include any models with a 2+ Armour Save.

Designer’s Note: Even though units are selected as squads in a Kill Team as normal, every model acts independently during the game itself. Effectively, each model acts as a single unit in its own right, as explained in further detail later (see Every Man for Himself).

YOUR LEADER

Every Kill Team will be led by a shrewd and experienced commander. Whether he is a charismatic officer being groomed for future command, or is something of a loner who prefers the relative freedom of guerilla warfare, his warriors will follow him unto death. All that matters is that it is his responsibility to see his mission completed, no matter the cost.

After choosing your Kill Team, you must determine which non-vehicle model will be your Leader. The Leader is automatically the character model with the highest Leadership value on its profile. If your Kill Team has no character models, then the Leader is automatically the model with the highest Leadership value on its profile. In either case, if several eligible models are tied for the highest Leadership value, you must nominate one of them to be your Leader. However, a model with the Beast unit type or Swarm special rule cannot be nominated as your Kill Team Leader. If your Leader is not already a Character or Independent Character, he gains the Character unit type.

Your Leader is a skilled veteran of many military campaigns. At the start of every game, roll on the Leader Traits table below before you deploy your Kill Team to discover what signature tactics your Leader has planned to help complete his mission.

LEADER TRAITS TABLE

D6 - Result

1 - A Cunning Ruse: D3+2 non-vehicle models of your choice have the Outflank special rule.

2 - Quick Thinker: Your Kill Team successfully Seizes the Initiative on the dice roll of a 4+ instead of a 6.

3 - Chasing Promotion: You gain 1 additional Victory Point if your Leader slays the enemy Leader in a challenge.

4 - Iron Resolve: Your Leader’s Command Range is increased to 12" (see Break Tests and Command Range, below).

5 - Been there, Seen it, Done it: Your Leader can select a special rule from one of the Specialist Categories (see below), though this cannot be from the same category as any of your other Specialists.

6 - Unshakeable Dedication to Duty: Your Leader has the Zealot special rule.

SPECIALISTS

In every theatre of war, there are fighters on either side whose courage, weapons proficiency, or sheer killer instincts can easily be lost amidst the carnage of larger scale conflicts. Yet in smaller skirmishes, the unique talents of these unsung heroes soon becomes apparent.

Whether they are grizzled and steadfast sergeants who have survived more than their fair share of wars, or perhaps even a squad’s latest recruit who shows a remarkable talent for marksmanship, these individuals are referred to as Specialists. After choosing your Kill Team and establishing who will be your Leader, you must nominate three non-vehicle models to be Specialists. You cannot nominate your Leader, nor can you choose a model with the Beast unit type or Swarm special rule to be a Specialist. Each Specialist must be assigned a single special rule chosen from one of the Specialist Categories shown below. No two Specialists in the same Kill Team can choose their special rules from the same Specialist Category.

The five Specialist Categories and the special rules which can be chosen from within each category are as follows:

COMBAT SPECIALIST

A highly aggressive warrior who is a deadly exponent of the art of close combat.

Counter-attack

If a unit contains at least one model with this special rule, and that unit is charged, it must immediately take a Leadership test. If the test is successful, every model with the Counter-attack special rule in the unit gets +1 Attack until the end of the phase. If, when charged, the unit was already locked in combat, the Counter-attack rule has no effect.

Furious Charge

In a turn in which a model with this special rule charges into combat, it adds +1 to its Strength characteristic until the end of that phase. A model that has made a disordered charge that turn receives no benefit from Furious Charge (pg 27 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Hammer of Wrath

If a model with this special rule charges and ends its charge move in base contact with one or more enemy models, it makes one additional Attack that hits automatically and

is resolved at the model’s unmodified Strength with an AP of –. This Attack is resolved during the Fight sub-phase at the Initiative 10 step. This does not grant the model an additional Pile In move at the Initiative 10 step.

If a model with this special rule charges a Transport vehicle or building, the Hammer of Wrath hit is resolved against the Transport vehicle or building, not the occupants.

Hatred

Commonly, a model only has Hatred towards a specific type of foe, in which case, the unlucky target will be expressed, in brackets, after the special rule. This can refer to a whole army, or a specific unit from that army. For example, Hatred (Orks) would mean any model from Codex: Orks, whilst Hatred (Big Meks) would mean only Big Meks. A model striking a hated foe in close combat re-rolls all misses during the first round of each combat – he does not get to make re-rolls for Hatred in subsequent rounds.

Instant Death**

Unsaved Wounds inflicted by an Attack with this special rule automatically inflict Instant Death, regardless of the victim’s Toughness.

If a model suffers an unsaved Wound from an attack which causes Instant Death, it is reduced to 0 Wounds and removed as a casualty.

Rage

In a turn in which a model with this special rule charges into combat, it gains +2 Attacks for charging, rather than +1. A model that has made a disordered charge that turn receives no benefit from Rage (pg 27 of Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Rampage

At the start of any Fight sub-phase, models with the Rampage special rule gain +D3 Attacks if the combat they are in contains more enemy models than friendly models – count all models in all units locked in the combat, not just those models that are engaged. Calculate each rampaging model’s bonus Attacks separately. A model that has made a disordered charge that turn receives no benefit from Rampage (pg 27 of the

Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

**Applies to the Specialist’s close combat attacks only.

WEAPON SPECIALIST

A deadeye shot and something of a technological genius at customising weaponry.